Latest Articles

Germany to substantially increase geothermal feed-in tariffs

Higher payments should boost distributed generation, doing for geothermal energy what Germany has already done for wind, solar, and biogas.

Top 5 animals going extinct because some guy can't get it up

Madagascar's tortoises are being wiped out by a "tortoise mafia" that authorities are powerless to stop. One reason: their shells are prized as an aphrodisiac in some parts of Asia. You might ask, "well, what hasn't been touted as the hidden folk-medical secret to letting old men impregnate everything in a five-mile radius?" The answer is: hardly anything.

Google's plan for cleantech world dominance says government policy is essential

Google set out to discover the effects of technological breakthroughs, and in the process discovered that strong government policies are key to accelerating their penetration into the market. Radical new battery technology and solar panels are great, but regular consumers don’t pick them up unless they're nudged in the right direction. In other words, the internet’s most successful capitalists say that the free market is all well and good, but we really need government regulation.

Pawlenty: 'Look at me! I don't believe in science either!'

Hey, remember Tim Pawlenty? I think he's running for state auditor or something.

Pawlenty used to think climate change was a major priority, back when he was governor of Minnesota and supported cap-and-trade. But then Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman showed underbelly by admitting that they believe in science -- a striking liability in this race -- and Pawlenty took that opportunity to swoop in and firmly establish himself as the most anti-climate-science candidate besides Bachmann and Perry and all the other ones! Go get 'em, T-Paw.

GM working on sexy new all-electric car for every country except U.S.

Germany, Korea, China, and now India are all venues for U.S. carmaking giant General Motors’ new all-electric hotness, the Chevrolet Beat.

Remembrance of cities past: spectacular photos of the way we lived

Photographer Burton Holmes created gorgeous photographs that documented urban life before the rise of the automobile. Could they help us to recapture some of what we have lost?

BPA makes male mice into mincing little nancymice

In the patriarchy (that's Women's Studies for "dicktopia") we live in, there is pretty much no worse fate than wussification. So in a way, we're glad to hear that Bisphenol A, an organic compound found in a lot of plastics, makes male mice act less masculine. Maybe this will induce Girl Panic in some of the straight dudes who run things, and we can finally get the stuff taken out of our baby bottles, plastic packaging, and cans. 

What does the reverse Great Migration mean for urbanism?

African-Americans are leaving Northern cities and heading back to the South. What kind of life will they lead there?

Bringin' crazy Bach

Michele Bachmann is officially running for president. Here's more proof that she's still officially crazy.

Critical List: Global warming — it's happening; Exxon funds climate deniers

In case you hadn’t heard … the world is warming up.

Exxon just can't quit climate deniers.

The Supreme Court thinks that the EPA must regulate carbon under the Clean Air Act; now it will decide if it can regulate wetlands on private property under the Clean Water Act.